


Pour That Sugar On Me

by Lou_and_I



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Baking, Canon, Christmas, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Mention of Zayn, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Swearing, The Great British Bake Off, attempted baking, great 80s music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:40:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27803965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lou_and_I/pseuds/Lou_and_I
Summary: Louis should never be allowed to bake. Also, he should be kept away from Harry, because of a crush that just won’t  go away. But sometimes sacrifises have to be made and cookies have to be baked in order to get the things you want.Or: One Direction are taking part in this year’s Great British Bake Off Christmas Special.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 12
Kudos: 79
Collections: 1D Christmas Fest 2020





	Pour That Sugar On Me

**Author's Note:**

> A big thank you Chloe for organising this beautiful Christmas Fic Fest. I've been so excited to take part in it and I really hope you guys like what I came up with.  
> The story came from this prompt: Great British Bake Off Celebrity Christmas episode where OT5 are all competing.  
> I'm a big Bake Off fan, so it had really been a no brainer to choose this one. One thing I struggled with tho, was including Zayn. His role in the band and their history just didn't fit with the idea I had with this fic. Please know that I don't have any bad feelings for him (or any of the boys really) and that I love him very much a lot (all of the boys really).  
> Also a massive thank you to the wonderful Anna. Thank you so much for always being my cheerleader! <3
> 
> There are no trigger warnings for this little story. Though if you find any, please let me know and they'll be added. Till then this thing is pure fluff, crack and powdered sugar. 
> 
> To read the other fabulous fics in the fest, please [click here!](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/1dchristmasfest2020)
> 
> Enjoy and happy Christmas everybody!

  


♥♥♥  
  
Saying Louis was in a bad mood was an understatement. Truth be told, Louis was pissed. Not only did he have to drive up to somewhere in the middle of nowhere, when he could have spend his weekend lounging on his couch, smoking and watching shit telly (something he liked to do very much), but also was he going to spend the next, what could very well be an eternity, baking. 

That’s right, Louis Tomlinson, who shouldn’t ever be allowed inside of a kitchen, was going to do some baking. And it wasn’t even going to happen silently, behind closed doors, where no one could ever see or judge his incompetence in the field. No, this exploit into foreign territory would be filmed, edited and broadcasted to millions, probably, all around the globe. Just great. But as much as he had tried, there wasn’t any way to get out of it. Not, if he ever wanted to get out of his old band contract, that was. And Louis very much so wanted exactly that.  


He was a bit tired of having the past constantly brought up to him, even if he actually tried to promote himself, and not him, as a part of One Direction. He had been trying to get his solo-music career going for the past four years, but no matter how hard he tried, by law, he was still a member of One Direction and would be, until this dreadful contract was finally completed. Don’t get him wrong, Louis loved being in One Direction, had loved every second of it, but now it simply was time to move on. Doing that by forcing him to participate in the Great British Bake Off Christmas Special though, seemed like a bit of a reach to him. And not only that, but his former band mates would be there too.  


Well, except for Zayn of course, since the fucker had managed to get out of any and all obligations by simply being a dick and leaving them all behind. But Louis was over that. Seriously, he was! But in moments like these, the resentment still sometimes made its way to the forefront of his mind. And maybe he was just a tat annoyed at himself for not coming up with it first back then. And Harry? He probably wouldn’t be there either, big-time pop-star he had become, his manager almost certainly managed to buy him out ages ago.  


But Louis couldn’t be sure, he hadn’t talked to the lad in months. He had kept contact with Liam and Niall though, and had confirmed with them that they also would be trapped in hell with him for the next two days. At least he would not have to be there all on his own. It was always a nice feeling to drag someone else down with you into misery, very satisfying indeed.   


When he parked his car in front of the little hotel somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Surrey, Louis could spot only a few other cars in the lot. He recognised only one of them, a shiny Aston Martin he was sure belonged to Liam. With a sign, Louis got out of his own car, opened the boot and got out his duffle for the weekend.   


He was just slamming the boot shut again, when the roar of another car driving up made his head snap up in surprise. A red Jaguar sports car drove dangerously fast and even more dangerously close to him, coming to a park just a few feet away. ‘Oi! What the fuck mate? Could have killed me there!’ he shouted as soon as the driver’s door flew open and a mop of curly hair popped out over the roof of the car.   


‘LOU!’ The shout startled Louis momentarily, all threads to live suddenly forgotten. He knew that voice, he had been sure to not hear it again for at least a few months more. But there he was, glorious as ever, big smile splitting a lovely face in half, dimples popping and curls flying all over the place. Harry rounded his car and immediately flew over to Louis, long arms wrapping him in a bear hug. Louis tried not to breath him hin. He wasn’t that pathetic.‘I knew you were probably going to be here, but it’s still so lovely to see you. Brilliant!’  


‘Harold?’ The nickname slipped out before Louis could have stopped himself. 

Oh god, that was Harry, hugging him tight and not giving any indication of letting him go any time soon. And that was a problem. You see, Louis had a crush on his former band mate. Had so for about ten years by now. But nothing ever happened, except some cuddles and hugs. Louis knew Harry wasn’t all so set on heterosexuality, never had been really. He once described it as a weird concept, something that didn’t make sense to him. Why should I not be able to love a man just because I always loved only girls ‘till now, Lou? That’s weird, he once had said. Well, and Louis?  


Louis had always been pretty gay. No point in denying that really, everyone knew anyways.  


There shouldn’t have been a problem there then. But somehow it just never happened. Maybe the both of them had just been too afraid to break up the band, or maybe it had been their management, always pushing the straight agenda on the both of them. Or maybe, and a big part of Louis knew it must have been this option, Harry just never felt the same and Louis had been too much of a coward to ever make a move. But who could tell by now anyways.   


Point was, Harry was now slowly releasing Louis from his arms, beaming down at him with an inquisitive cock of his head, obviously waiting for Louis to elaborate on the question.  


‘What are you doing here? I didn’t think you would ever show up to something like this. Is there no arena you have to play or something?’  


He internally cringed at his slightly judgemental tone, but Harry just chuckled. ‘If you think I’d pass up an opportunity to one show off my superiority in the field of baking, and to see you setting a BBC tent on fire, you’re mistaken, love.’   


Louis couldn’t help but let out his own chuckle at that. Oddly enough, this conversation felt like no time since their last short interaction at the beginning of the year had passed at all. It even felt more like the old days, those from the beginning, when they worked more like a unity than two separate beings.   


‘Good to know you’re so confident in your abilities, mate. It’ll be even more fun to destroy you that way. Prepare to cry, little ‘un.’ 

♥♥♥  
  
Niall and Liam had already been inside the heated tent out on the grounds. After Louis and Harry had discarded their overnights into their rooms for the night, they had joined them there. Louis had been momentarily struck by the sheer amount of cheesy Christmas decorations adorning the walls and countertops of the space. No place he had ever been to had been quite able to reach this level of pre-christmassy cheerfulness before, especially none in the beginning of November. 

There were massively huge Christmas trees in three of the tent’s four corners, bright red and green garlands with twinkling fairy lights strung over every space between them. A fake fireplace was lit on the far end, equally fake stockings adorning its mantle. Everything seemed to have been covered in a light sheen of glittery snow, and Louis even caught a glimpse of what looked like an honest to god mistletoe hanging over one of the workbenches.  


Louis liked Christmas just as much as the next guy, probably even more so because of his birthday on Christmas Eve, but this was a bit too much, even for him. Harry on the other hand had lit up like one of the monstrosities they called trees in the corners, the moment he had stepped inside right after Louis.   


‘Look, Lou!’ He had pulled impatiently on the sleeve of Louis’ shirt, as if to draw his attention to the spectacle around them. As if that had been necessary. This place was already screaming in Louis’ face as it was. ‘They even have tiny elves sitting on that cupboard over there! Look!’  


Liam and Niall, who had obviously been here for a bit and therefore gotten over the cheerfulness already, had made quick work of the greetings. None of them seemed to be surprised with Harry’s presence at all. They had probably talked to him beforehand and not for the first time, Louis wondered why the two of them hadn’t managed to keep the same level of contact. Well, a tiny voice in his head said, it’s obviously because you still have this stupid little crush, don’t you? Don’t want to embarrass yourself by being too obvious. Wanker.   


The filming started only a half an hour later, bright spotlights were turned on, turning the already warm tent into a furnace quickly. Introductions were made where Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding threw around Christmas puns and more than one awful dig about families getting back together for the holiday, you know, because One Direction should get back together. Obviously Harry laughed at each and every single one of those stupid jokes and Louis had to force himself not to stare at the man on the other side of the tent in awe everytime his deep chuckle sounded over to him. 

Prue told the camera that she was one of the biggest directioners out there, somehow managing to keep a straight face all the while, while Paul obviously didn’t have a clue who these boys in front of him were. But Louis didn’t pay them all that much attention. His eyes drifting over to Harry again and again, without his permission. 

Harry, clad in ridiculously flared trousers, with a comfortable knit jumper, which would soon be the death of him in this heat, and the same cute red apron around his torso that Louis was also sporting. Why did he always have to look so good, even in the weirdest shit? It remained a mystery to him.   
Their first challenge was the signature bake, Christmas biscuits. Niall opted for Irish Whiskey Christmas Cookies (‘Santa deserves something nice, ya know? Must get a bit boring to always get the same shite thrown at ya at every house…’), Liam had chosen simple sugar-cookies in funny shapes and promised the decoration would make up for any lack of imagination. 

Harry’s choice was obviously the most ambitious one of them all. ‘I used to work in a bakery, you know?’ He told the camera when it was his turn. Then he went on telling them about his German cinnamon-stars. ‘They are just delicious. I once had them in this tiny cafe just outside of Hamburg, of course I had to go and ask for the recipe and…’ 

Louis tuned out after that. Bloody hipster and his bloody foreign delicacies, made from an original recipe. But even if Harry was a hipster, he was still so, well, so much. Louis could have probably listened to his rambling all day. And even if he would judge him immensely for most of what he was saying, he would never say it to Harry’s face. At least not in a mean way. Harry should always be happy and talking like that in Louis’ humble opinion.   


He tuned back into Harry’s interview just as Harry said ‘Excuse me, but it’s so hot in here. Just let me get out of this thing,’ and followed up by ridding himself from his comfy but way too thick jumper.   


For a second Louis’ brain short-circuited, watching the way the muscles under Harry’s thin t-shirt worked as he stretched his arms over his head.  


Nope. Louis couldn’t do this. He needed a distraction or else his baking would end up in drool. This thing was filmed after all and his face couldn’t looked like that of a lovesick puppy. Not that Louis was lovesick, not Louis! Never. It was just a crush, a stupid, childish crush he had for ten years now. A crush on a guy who saw him as a friend, if that, and who would probably never reciprocate his feelings. Okay. Maybe Louis was a little bit heartbroken after all. Fuck this, he needed that distraction, like right now.  


He looked down at his own batter with a furrowed brow. Maybe concentrating on this competition was the way to distract himself from the constant loop of Harry, Harry, Harry in his mind. But the thing was, a signature bake meant that one had this one bake they alway did and that was basically ingrained into their brains. Louis though, had never baked a single biscuit in his life before today. He had to go and ask his gram for a recipe, any recipe really.

She had then come up with one for dark double chocolate chip cookies. ‘They are so easy to make, Boo. Even you can do this if you just follow the instructions.’ The level of trust and support there was simply astounding. But Louis had quite realistic expectations coming here and didn’t plan on winning anyway. Paying attention to baking was therefore just boring and probably not even worth his time. It was much more interesting to watch his friends.  


Liam, always the over-achiever, had already finished mixing all his ingredients together and was currently busy rolling out his dough as evenly as possible. Louis thought he looked hilarious, with his eyebrows knitted together as if Liam was trying to solve a complicated math problem instead of spreading out cookie dough. Without looking, Louis threw some more sugar into his bowl and shoved his hands into it to knead the chocolaty ball some more, his eyes drifting around the tent again.  


Niall was currently the one being interviewed and observed by Noel and Matt.   


‘You know,’ he told the two of them while uncorking a bottle of whiskey, ‘Christmas isn’t all that different back in Ireland.’ He made two glasses appear out of nowhere, pouring a hefty amount of the amber liquid into them. ‘It’s basically the same as here in England, but with a lot more beer and whiskey. It’s great.’ He pushed the tumblers over to the show’s hosts. They both took them gratefully and toasted them to Niall’s own.

Where did that even come from? That boy was seriously a mystery to Louis sometimes, making things appear seemingly out of thin air, mostly alcoholic things. This gift could come handy to Niall in this competition though. Getting the hosts and judges drunk should not be allowed in Louis’ opinion. It simply wasn’t fair and someone should intervene asap.   


Deciding that this was the distraction Louis needed right now, he left his dough to do whatever it did without him kneading it into oblivion and marched over to the other side of the tent.   


‘Horan, give me that,’ he ordered as soon as he stood in front of Niall. Without waiting for an answer, Louis grabbed the bottle Niall had used to unfairly win this contest and put it to his own mouth. He ignored Niall’s shouted protest, something about fucking unsanitary and I need that you twat, and instead marched over to where Liam was now crouched next to his workbench so he was at eye-level with it. He was holding a ruler next to his rolled out dough, probably checking if it was even on all sides.   


God, that boy needed to seriously lighten up and let go a bit, but thankfully, Louis was here to help out like any good friend would. He grabbed the ruler Liam was now holding over his spread to measure its size, and held it behind his back.  


‘What the bloody fuck Louis? Give it back, I need that!’ Liam shouted, but Louis just grinned at him. ‘I will, if you drink this.’ Louis held up the bottle he stole from Niall just moments before. Liam seemed to contemplate the deal for a moment, but he knew as well as Louis did, that there was no way he was going to get around Louis’ rules. It was just how things worked. ‘Fine,’ Liam grumbled. ‘Give me that.’ He grabbed the bottle from Louis and took a large swing of the whiskey. ‘Are you happy now?’   


Louis grinned but shook his head no. ‘Take another one.’  


Liam didn’t even try to argue this time, just taking another swing. ‘One more, and this ruler returns to you.’ Louis knew he was evil, but it was honestly for Liam’s best. And it also pissed off Niall, which was a big plus.   


After his third big swing, Liam shook his head, a lazy grin now splitting his face. Liam had always had an embarrassingly low alcohol-tolerance. ‘Keep the damn ruler, the dough is probably fine as it is, right?’ Liam shrugged with another grin and turned back to cutting his sugar cookies out, his shoulders now much more relaxed than before.  


Louis couldn’t help but grin himself a bit after this success of a mission and took another sip of whiskey himself. Right then, Niall was done with his segment and came waltzing over. ‘Give that back, you tosser. I fucking need that!’   


He made grabby hands for the bottle, but Louis wasn’t done yet. ‘You get it back if you have a drink with me first.’  


For a few seconds, Niall just stared at him at the request, obviously contemplating his chances to simply wrestle the bottle from his smaller, but fierce bandmate. Eventually he just picked up his glass and thrusted it in Louis’ direction, one eyebrow quirked in obvious amusement over Louis antics. This was playing out very nicely, Louis thought. He filled up the offered vessel a bit more full than strictly necessary, and watched on, as Niall emptied it in one long swing.   


‘Now, can I please get back the main ingredient for my cookies?’ he asked, but without any serious menace. Louis grinned, taking one last drink for himself, before thrusting the now basically empty bottle back into Niall’s waiting hand.   


‘Louis.’  


A shit eating grin spread all over Louis’ face. ‘Yes, dear?’ he answered with an obviously faked angelic smile. ‘Louis, the bottle is nearly empty.’ Niall looked up, incredulity written all over his features. ‘How… What the fuck did you do with that?’ At that Lous finally cracked up. He had to hold his stomach, he was laughing so hard.

For the first time, a silver of real annoyance crossed Niall’s face. ‘What the actual fuck, Tomlinson? Did you just pour out an entire bottle of sixty pounds worth of whiskey just to fuck with me? Are you fucking serious right now?’ Niall was nearly shouting by the end, attracting the attention of even the last person who by now wasn’t paying attention to them. But Louis couldn’t find it in himself to care all that much. ‘Oh, I didn’t waste anything of that stuff, believe me. I’d blame Lee for it. He drank most of it anyways.’  


‘Louis, for fucks sake, how am I supposed to bake whiskey cookies without bloody whiskey you cunt?’  


Louis leaned closer to him, as if to tell him a secret and Niall followed his example without realising. ‘That’s what you get, for trying to bribe the judges, lad.’   


Louis avoided the slap Niall was aiming at him by happily dancing back to his station and out of the angry Irish-man’s reach.   


All in all, his mission to distract himself from Harry had worked like a charm. Over the next thirty minutes he reeled in the aftermaths of his antics, watching a drunk Liam trying to coordinate with a piping bag and effectually creating the most unappealing looking and messiest sugar cookies Louis had ever seen, and watching a pissed of Niall running around like a chicken to somewhat come up with a plan-b for his recipe, now that his main ingredient had been drunk. It didn’t work and eventually, Niall had to give up and just go ahead and leave the alcohol out of his baking. Louis encountered his own little hick up while baking, when his double chocolate chip cookies lacked some serious sweetness after baking them all.

Maybe he should have tried the batter before sending it into the oven, but now it was too late anyway. If Louis would have cared about winning, he might have been devastated, but as it was he didn’t really care and just grabbed a handful of weird looking sugar grains and carelessly threw them over his finished bake.  


Not once did he look up and check on what Harry had been doing the whole time. And he might be proud over that accomplishment, but if he would have done so, he would have seen that Harry had been watching him with wide eyes and a secret smile the whole time. So much so, that he didn’t realise his timer had gone off and his cinnamon stars came out in an unappetising shade of dark brown that even a layer of icing could not save. 

♥♥♥  
  
To everyone's surprise, but especially to Louis’ own, he won the signature baking round. And even if the offered biscuits of his bandmates hadn’t been a mess, Paul and Rue had been praising him and his dark double chocolate cookies to the heavens. As it had turned out, what Louis had thought was some weird kind of sugar, had in fact been salt. But apparently salt was a ‘very nice match’ with the ‘heaviness of the dark chocolate, very creative Louis, well done!’ Who would have thought.   


‘This is so not fair,’ Niall moaned as the four of them huddled outside of the tent for a smoke break. ‘He sabotaged all of us! I’m voting for a disqualification!’  


Louis took a drag from his cigarette, a shit eating grin on his face. ‘I did no such thing, Horan. Don’t be dramatic. I left Harry perfectly alone now, didn’t I?’  


A snort came from the direction Harry was standing and when Louis looked, the man was just staring intently at the glowing tip of his own cigarette.   


‘Pff, there was no need to even involve him. We all know that Haz can never concentrate on anything else, as soon as you get into one of your moods. Look at him,’ Liam said, pointing directly at Harry. At that Harry’s head snapped up, something that could only be described as deer in the headlights expression on his face. ‘He gets all giggly and loved up every time you pull that shit, Lou!’  


At that, Harry’s eyes went as wide as saucers, a frantic expression clear in his green eyes. ‘Liam…’ Harry started warningly, but before he could finish his threat, an assistant came out of the tent to usher the four boys back into the mess that was round two of the Great British Bake Off Christmas Special: The Technicals.

♥♥♥  
  
‘Well lads, that was something wasn’t it?’ Louis lifted the beer he had just received from the waitress up for the other three to clink theirs against his. ‘I still can’t believe you got second for that bloody mess of a mince you delivered there, Tommo.’ Liam dramatically buried his head in his folded arms, head on the table of the little pub located on the ground floor of their hotel for the night. 

It was a cosy space, similarly decorated as the baking tent was, twinkling lights and fir branches all over the place and the soothing sound of piano versions of Christmas songs silently playing from some hidden speaker. Luckily, the whole place was rented out by the Bake Off crew, so that it wasn’t too much of a shock for any unsuspecting patrons to come in and see the whole of One Direction sitting merrily together around one of the tables and celebrating their first day of filming.  


The only other guests were working on the show and had gotten their fill of the band over the last few hours. Thanks to that, they were left alone. The last take of the day had been shot about an hour prior, crowning Harry the deserving winner of the second challenge. Granted, his mince pie had been the only that had actually qualified as one after they had all put their attempts down on the table for the judges to, well, judge. Louis wasn’t exactly sure what happened to his in the process of baking, but when it came out, it definitely didn’t look like the one Harry had made.  


Still, at least his one didn’t make Paul cringe while tasting like Liam’s did, or had to be served in a bowl to prevent running like the one Niall had presented. Maybe he was a natural after all.   


‘I bet Harry secretly helped him when no one was looking,’ Niall snorted as he raised his glass to his lips and emptied it in one go.   


At that Harry let out an undignified noise that sounded vaguely like protest.   


‘Why would Harry help me?’ Louis asked. Since that first comment by Liam after the first round, he and Niall had made countless more over the rest of the day. 'Take a picture, Harry,' when Niall caught him looking at Louis rolling out the dough, 'Not that again,' after Harry let out a loud belly laugh at one of the jokes Louis made and that admittedly hadn’t been all that funny, and 'Jealous mate?' when Louis had Liam in a headlock for trying to mess with his filling and Harry had gotten that little crease between his eyebrows that Louis always wanted to immediately smooth over with his fingers. Or lips. Whatever.   


Point was, Liam and Niall kept making weird little comments about every interaction Louis and Harry had over the last couple of hours. Even those, where they didn’t really interact. Like Harry staring at him in this weird way, while Louis tried so hard to not look at him at all. Why was Harry staring at him like that anyways?   


In that moment Louis looked up, only to find Harry doing the exact same thing he had been thinking about just moments ago. Harry was staring at him, lips slightly parted, eyebrows pulled together the tiniest bit, as if he was concentrating all his attention into this one glance.  


And Louis? He couldn’t help but stare back. He remembered all the instances where Harry had looked at him the exact same way over the years. He had always put it off as just the way Harry looked at people, but as he thought about it, Louis had never seen this look focused on anyone but himself. Somehow, Louis just couldn’t figure out what it meant though. 

Maybe it was just the closeness the two of them shared at the beginning of the band. They had been basically inseparable after all. But shouldn’t that look have changed after they spend more time apart as the years went on?   
  


Harry and Louis were still staring at each other, not even realising what they were doing. Meanwhile, Niall and Liam exchanged their own looks, silently communicating with each other. After a raised eyebrow from Niall and an answering nod from Liam, the both of them made a move to get up. The movement startled Louis out of his thoughts, Harry snapping out of it a few seconds later.   


‘Alright, lads. I’m knackered. I’m heading to bed. Liam, you coming?’ Niall said as he made an obvious show of yawning around a grin. Liam imitated the gesture, a lot more subtle and natural looking. ‘Lead the way, Nialler. You two enjoy the rest of the evening, yeah?’ He said as he made to follow Niall out of the pub. At the very last moment he turned around with an uncertain frown line between his brows. For a moment it looked like he was going to decide against speaking up, and would just turn back around and leave.  


But then he spoke anyway. ‘Have a chat, you two, yeah? Harry, you know what about.’ Without another word, he turned on his heel and bolted from the room, leaving behind a very confused Louis and a shocked Harry.   


Louis turned back to face his bandmate. ‘What is he on about, Harold? Talk about what?’  


‘I can’t believe he… I’m going to kill him in his sleep,’ Harry mumbled, suddenly bright red in the face. He obviously avoided looking Louis directly in the eye, instead busying himself with tearing up a coaster. This behaviour was weird, even for Harry’s standards and Louis started to worry that something was seriously wrong. ‘Harry?’ he tried. Harry still didn’t look up at him, but gave a noncommittal ‘mmmhm’ as an answer.   


‘Darling, can you look at me?’ When Harry still didn’t lift his gaze, Louis got up and rounded the table to sit beside his friend. ‘Haz, you are starting to really worry me. What is going on?’ He put his hand over Harry’s that were still busy tearing that coaster to shreds. ‘What did Liam mean by that?’   


At the touch Harry went momentarily still, before taking a large breath and turning his entire body towards Louis. ‘Okay.’  


Harry inhaled one more time, before finally lifting his eyes and focussing them on Louis. ‘There is something I need to tell you. And I want you to listen and not say anything ‘till I’m finished, yeah? Can you do this for me?’  


Momentarily stunned by this sudden onslaught of words, all Louis could do was nod.   


‘Okay. Here goes nothing.’ Harry once more closed his eyes, as if looking directly at Louis and formulating a coherent sentence at the same time was something impossible for him to do. Louis only realised he still held Harry’s hands in his, when he automatically squeezed them a bit to give the obviously struggling man in front of him a sign of reassurance.   


‘Since the break started, I didn’t feel like myself. Sure, I got to do so many amazing things, Lou. You can’t imagine, some of it was just so unbelievable. But it was always as if something was off, you know? And at first, I thought it must have been the band, like being in a band. But I have a band now too, they are amazing and everything I could have ever wished for. Then I thought it was just that I was busy all the time and just exhausted, but when I took a few months off and did nothing at all, the feeling got even worse. So I talked to Gemma and I talked to mum. Hell, I even talked to a therapist about it!’  


By now Louis was barely breathing. What was going on? Was Harry ill?   


‘And… finally, after so much talking, we found out what’s wrong. What was missing for me to be truly happy. But I didn’t know what to do about it, you know? So a few months ago, I went to the only people I knew would understand completely. Liam and Niall.’   


What? Louis was so confused. What did Liam and Niall have to do with this? How could they help Harry, but not Louis? Because Louis didn’t miss that he was the one missing from these group sessions that had apparently had been happening behind his back. 

Louis only wanted the best for Harry, but being left out still stung a lot. Maybe he could have helped too. God, Louis so desperately wanted to be one of the people, if not the only one, Harry could always turn to if he was feeling down. Or happy, anything really as long as Louis could be there for him. I want your happiness so much, Louis thought, I love you so much.   


‘And you know what the funniest thing was?’ Harry went on, chuckling lightly and luckily not being able to read Louis thoughts. ‘The funniest thing was that I didn’t even have to tell them. They already knew. Have known for years apparently, and I was just too confused or blind or whatever to ever see it myself, you know?’   


Louis didn’t know. Louis literally didn’t have a clue what was going on at this point.  


‘And the two of them helped me come up with the words and the courage and do something I wouldn’t have had the courage to do otherwise. As it seems they came up with an opportunity too, the bastards. So I’m just going to go ahead and say it.’  


Harry took another long and heavy breath before looking up and directly into Louis’ confused eyes. His green ones were filled with a determination Louis had only seen a handful of times portrayed in those same eyes. Each and every time had been right before Harry had done something incredibly stupid, or reckless, or brave. Sometimes all of those three combined.   


And suddenly it clicked for him. Somehow he knew what Harry was going to say next. At that his heart came to a full stop.   


“Louis, I’m in love with you.”  


It were those words, heard out loud, that instantly kickstarted his heart again and suddenly it was racing in Louis’ chest. “Oh,” he said faintly, his lips forming around the vowel in a mixture of shock and disbelief.   


“And I’ve probably been in love with you for about ten years. I was just too confused and afraid to ever realise it properly. Lou, I don’t expect you to feel the same or anything really, I just had to tell you for my own sanity and…”  


But Harry never got to finish that sentence, because it was then, that Louis lunged forward and crashed their lips together. The first touch sent electric shocks through Louis' entire system. Harry’s mouth was warm, his lips so plush and soft and he tasted like all the sugar of the day and something that must have been uniquely Harry. Louis didn’t have to separate their lips to know that he was already addicted to Harry’s taste.   


It took Harry just a few seconds to get over the shock, before his hands found their way to the small of Louis’ back and his lips to part and invite Louis in and reciprocate the kiss in the most delicious way. Ten years of hiding his feelings, ten years of always looking but never touching, ten bloody years of silently loving Harry and being sure to never be loved back.  


Louis poured all of what those ten years meant to him into this one kiss, this one moment somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Surry, hidden in a dark corner of a pub, while Christmas music softly played in the background and fairy lights twinkled around them.  


“Heavens Harry, that took you long enough!” Louis panted, disconnecting their lips just for the time it took him to force the words out. As soon as he was finished he slotted them back together, just to break apart again a few seconds later. “And just to be clear, in case this wasn’t obvious already, I’m in love with you too.” 

♥♥♥  
  
‘So…’  


‘So?’  


‘Ten years, huh? How was that?’  


They were lying in bed, Harry’s head resting on top of Louis’ bare chest. The early morning light filtered in through the light curtains of Harry’s hotel room. When the two of them had left the pub the night before, talking somehow hadn’t made the list of things they got up to after stumbling into the room together, hands grabbing at clothes and mouths attaching to every available patch of skin they could reach. But now, in the light of day, cuddled together as close as they could get, there were questions, burning on Louis’ mind. And apparently on Harry’s too.   


‘I mean, Lou, if I understood you right last night, you knew hell of a lot longer than I did, right?’ He turned his head a tiny bit more up, to get a better look at Louis. ‘When did you know? That I was more to you than just a friend I mean.’  


‘Do you remember that time during the X-Factor when you weren’t allowed to speak for a few days because you caught that virus that went around the house and it hurt your throat so bad?’ Louis felt Harry nodding where his hand was resting in his tousled locks.  


‘And I wouldn’t leave your side for one-second in case you needed something or someone. I knew then that I would do anything just to make you smile. From there, it took me maybe another month to realise why that was. Because I was proper in love with your stupid sixteen-year-old arse.’  


Harry stayed silent for a few moments, the only sound that of both of them breathing together.   


‘I’m sorry, Lou,’ Harry eventually whispers.   


‘What for love?’  


‘For not realising sooner and then for not having the balls to come directly to you as soon as I realised I’ve been loving you for years.’ Harry sat himself up, so he could face Louis fully. He rested a tentative hand on Louis’ cheek, cradling his face, as if it was the most precious thing he had ever touched. ‘I’m so sorry, I made you wait ten years for me.’  


‘Harry,’ Louis said sternly, grabbing Harry’s wrists with determination. ‘You didn’t do anything wrong. I honestly didn’t expect you to fall for me at all, like ever. And now? Now I’m just so incredibly happy and honoured that you did. This,’ he said, pressing their foreheads together, still reeling in the rush it gave him to be so close to the man he loved for such a long time, ‘this right here, is more than I could have ever wished for. I’m so in love with you and you love me too. What more could I ever ask for?’  


Harry’s kiss shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but if Louis was being honest, he was still incredibly baffled by the turn of events, by the fact that from now on he could touch and kiss and love Harry whenever he pleased to do so.   


Eventually their lazy make-out session got interrupted by Harry’s alarm going off. They had to be at breakfast in half an hour, another day of filming ahead of them.  


‘Ready to get your pretty arse handed to you, Harold?’ Louis teased.  


‘Dream on, Lewis.’

♥♥♥  
  
The last round of the Bake Off Christmas Special really didn’t go as the producers had probably planned for it to go. From the moment One Direction stepped into the tent, baking became more of a side-activity than something anyone took seriously anymore. 

Liam and Niall had been elated when Louis and Harry had shown up at breakfast, hands interwind and matching stupid smiles on their faces. Liam had immediately sprung from his seat forcing the two of them into a bear hug and fuzzed over them like the mother he was during the whole meal.  


Niall had simply burst out in tears, happy tears he swore to them, and had mumbled something about a ship that had finally sailed. All in all, it had been a good morning. And it had gotten even better as soon as baking ingredients had gotten involved.  


Louis had fought to get the work space next to Harry’s that day.  


The producers hadn’t been all that pleased, talking about continuity and equally unimportant stuff, but when Louis gave them a look and asked what they were going to do about it as he sat down on the worktop, they eventually gave in. Harry, the bastard, kept giggling through it all, immediately stepping between Louis parted legs and kissing him on the mouth. Right there for everyone to see.  


Louis would have paid good money to see the looks on everyone's faces, but he was a bit preoccupied by pulling Harry closer by the collar of his jumper and locking his legs around Harry’s hips. He wasn’t planning to let the man go figuratively any time in the future, so why not also keep him as physically close as possible too? It really only made sense.  


He only released Harry when he absolutely had to. But even after that, baking was probably the last thing on Louis' mind. He had purposefully picked a very simple recipe for his showstopper. Something that would get him through the show without the intention of winning. It was just a simple chocolate cake he was going to douse in powdered sugar afterwards and maybe, if he was feeling brave, decorate it with a few fondant trees or something equally christmassy. That was all he was willing to and capable of doing anyway.  


The downside of it became apparent to him after he had mixed up all his ingredients and had pushed his baking pan into the oven for it to bake for forty minutes. Because now Louis had nothing left to do but wait.  


And a Louis with too much time on his hands had never been something that didn’t end in disaster. Even if it was almost always a very fun ride to get to the point of utter destruction.   


It had started out innocently enough. Louis had wandered over to get a look at what Harry was doing, partly because he was bored, partly because he missed Harry, and partly because he felt the need to annoy someone. Harry had been bent over his work bench when Louis arrived, his cute bum all on display for Louis to give it a playful slap.   


Harry let out a shriek in surprise and promptly lost balance. He tried to save his fall forward with an outstretched hand. Louis could only watch on as the next scene played out before him in slow-motion.  


Harry’s hand missed the countertop he had been reaching for by a few inches, but he did manage to somehow get his hand caught at the rim of a large bowl filled with powdered sugar standing close to the edge. The bowl tipped forward with force, basically catapulting its contents right into the face of the person standing closest to it, which unfortunately was none other than Louis himself.   


For a second no one in the tent moved, no one made a sound until Harry finally broke the silence with a barking laugh.  


From there everyone around them broke too and soon everyone was laughing their arses off at the sight of Louis covered from head to toe in sugar.  


Louis took a moment longer than everyone else to snap out of the shock, but when he did an evil smirk crept over his face as he stared down at Harry, who was bright red in the face by now, lying on the floor, still laughing hysterically.   


‘Oh, you think this is funny, babe?’  


As soon as Harry seemed to register what Louis was saying he shouted ‘No!’ and tried to scramble up to his feet again to get away, but too late. Louis had already grabbed another bowl, this time full of cocoa powder and had emptied its contents over Harry’s head. Now it was Louis’ turn to crack up with everyone around them.  


‘Aww, look Liam!’ he heard Niall laugh from behind him. ‘They are doing couples costumes already. They look like an Oreo! So cute!’ By now it sounded as if Liam had trouble breathing because he was laughing so hard.  


Louis shared a look with Harry, and the smirk on his face told Louis that they were both on the same page.   


‘Don’t be stupid Niall!’ Louis said as he turned around with an angelic smile, while Harry silently got up from the floor, grabbing another bowl from the workstation. Niall didn’t see him though, he also didn’t notice when Harry went around his workbench to get behind the Irish man, too focused on Louis.  


‘What?’ he asked, equal parts confused and suspicious.   


‘Niall, Oreos are always made out of two cookies.’ Louis grinned right as Harry dropped another bowl full of cocoa over Niall’s head. Liam nearly passed out at that, barely getting any oxygen into his lungs through his laughter. ‘You think this is funny, Payne?’ Niall shouted before tackling Liam down and shaking out his hair over him like a dog, making it rain cocoa all over him.   


‘That looks nice. You should do me next Lou.’ Harry had gotten that weird little smile on his face, the one Louis knew all too well. It was the smile he got when he was about to make one of his horrible, horrible puns.  


‘Harry, please, don’t…’  


But there was no stopping now. Louis knew it, Harry knew it, everyone in this band, probably everyone in this tent knew it.  


‘You know, you should just…’ Harry paused for what he probably thought was dramatic effect. Also to do a weirdly sexy and confusingly endearing hip thrust in Louis direction. Louis really wanted to leave and never have to witness the train wreck that was likely to happen. Harry was a lot. Sexy, cute, smart, talented and so much more. He literally was everything to Louis. Except one thing. Harry Styles was not funny.   


‘You should just, pour some sugar on me!’ Harry had the audacity to actually sing the last part. All Louis could do was stare at him as if he could not decide whether to slap or kiss this sexy man-child in front of him. The decision was gladly taken from him though.  


‘Oooooh, in the name of looove!’ Niall suddenly barked from behind Louis.   


‘Pour some sugar on meeee!’ And there was Liam.   


Louis couldn’t believe what was happening. Why was he friends with these people? Why was he in love with the biggest loser of all of them, just why? It really made no sense to him.   


By now the three men around him had started harmonising to the Def Leppard song Harry had vilified for his bad, bad joke. Niall was banging kitchen utensils down to the beat and Louis was still wondering where the real grownups were and why no one had put an end to any of this yet.  


Of course someone would reprimand him for choosing a baking spot close to Harry, but no one cared if three boy-banders, gone wild, were figuratively butchering Def Leppard. The audacity.   


But it was also his favourite part of the song coming up and everyone looked at him in anticipation.   


‘I’m hot, sticky sweet from my head to my feet, yeeeeaaaah!’ Louis yelled to the complete delight of everyone, surprisingly including himself.   


Niall made a show of playing an air-guitar, imitating the sound with his voice, while Liam took over wooden-spoon drumming-duties. Harry then started grinding on Louis as if he was a pole, yelling out loud Yeah!’s every time he thought the song called for it and no one was thinking about the fact that they were currently contestants in a baking competition for what was probably a too long time. 

♥♥♥  
  
'So, uhm, normally this would be the moment of the show where I’d try and build some suspension before announcing who won this week's Star Baker. But I think we all know who that is today.' Paul stood in front of One Direction, a giggling Rue next to him. 

He looked stricken between trying really hard not to laugh himself and reprimanding them like they were kids. Possibly sending them all off to bed without tea for the mess they’d made. But this was the last shot of the day and Paul wasn’t stupid, the sooner he got this done and over with, keeping up at least a tiny bit of professionalism, the sooner this would be over and he didn’t have to see Liam, Niall, Louis or Harry ever again.   


And he was right too. There really was no question who should win Star Baker. Due to their impromptu rock concert being a massive hit, various members of the crew had requested other songs.  


None of the boys had realised how much time had actually passed when Louis’ oven timer went off. And by then he was the only one with something resembling a cake.  


Even if there hadn’t been any icing sugar left to decorate it and even if it had been dry as all hell, it was still a cake. The only cake.  


None of the others had managed to get anything done in the remaining minutes.  


'And with that, this year's Great British Bake Off Christmas Special Star Baker goes to…. Louis Tomlinson!'  


Even if it wasn’t a surprise to anyone by this stage of the show, everyone around Louis started to cheer and clap. Immediately Harry was at him, strong arming him into a tight hug and obnoxiously yelling into Louis’ ear. God Louis loved him so, so much. In fact, Louis thought, as Liam and Niall joined them and made a group thing out of it, Louis loved all of them.  


These were his best friends, his brothers and the love of his life.  


And there was nowhere he would rather be right now. 


End file.
